More than buildings: $150M school bond would launch programs, boost morale, educators say

Saturday

May 5, 2018 at 7:15 PM

The Year of the Bond, part 2: A year-long series examining the current state of Alamance-Burlington Schools and the $150 million bond referendum on November's ballot

Jessica Williams jessicawtn

The Alamance-Burlington School System’s $150 million bond will buy the county more than a high school.

Sure, the $70 million school set to be constructed between Southern Alamance and Eastern Alamance High Schools – two of the most overcrowded schools in the district – will have a significant impact.

And the remaining $80 million to be used for existing schools – replacing windows, floor and ceiling tiles, renovating restrooms, fixing damaged sidewalks, and checking off a litany of other issues – will go a far ways in addressing deferred maintenance.

But the bond will do more than relieve brick-and-mortar issues.

It’s the key to increased opportunities.

Redistricting

In the last installment, “The school shuffle: School performance grades tell a story, just not the one you think,” which ran on Mar. 4, the Times-News went into great detail about inequity in the Alamance-Burlington School System.

So what’s being done about it?

On January 23, 2017, the Board of Education unanimously passed a plan creating five newly-drawn high school zones: Eastern Alamance, Southern Alamance, Western Alamance, Williams and one yet to be built. Graham and Cummings High Schools will become magnet schools open to students across the district.

The purpose of the plan is two-fold: it alleviates overcrowding and will divvy up the percentage of students receiving free-and-reduced lunch evenly across the district — instead of concentrated in certain schools — resulting in increased opportunities for poorer students.

In the months leading up to the vote, the board gave community members ample opportunity to express their opinions — and they did — at public forums, during phone calls, in emails, and with impassioned speeches delivered at board meetings.

Some Alamance residents opposed the plan. Others agreed that it was past time to make the change, and ultimately, the board moved forward.

Part of the plan — the part that isn’t dependent on the construction of a new high school — went into effect in the fall of 2017, moving students from the overcrowded Western and Southern zones to the Williams zone.

The remainder of the plan has been tabled as the board waits for the outcome of the November vote.

If the bond passes, students will make the switch once the new high school opens.

If it doesn’t pass — well, there isn’t a Plan B.

But Superintendent Bill Harrison isn’t worried.

“We’re confident that the bond is going to pass,” he said. “We’ve talked a little bit about some options if it doesn’t. None of them are good. None of them will achieve what we’re hoping to achieve in terms of socioeconomic balance in our schools.”

However, if things go south, opponents of redistricting shouldn't count on things remaining the same. Harrison has said in the past that redistricting will still occur in some form, even without the new high school.

Specialized programs

Within the $80 million slated for existing schools, there’s a percentage built in for supporting specialized programs.

The orchestra program, currently only offered at former Burlington City Schools, would be expanded to the entire county, and the two new magnet schools — Graham and Cummings — would receive support for equipment and resources.

Graham will have two programs: the ABSS Career Academy for skilled trades and the ABSS Pre-Collegiate Academy, in which students take honors core courses in the ninth and 10th grades before taking Alamance Community College courses in the 11th and 12th grades.

Cummings will become an International Arts Academy and offer an International Baccalaureate program, both of which will be implemented slowly over three to four years after the new high school is approved.

In Harrison’s most recent presentation, the funding is broken down like so:

Graham High School: $7,619,063 of the bond will be used to renovate existing buildings and increase the funding for the purchase of specialty equipment for the Career and Technical Education curriculum.Cummings High School: $10,867,063 of the bond will be used for an auditorium lobby addition, renovating existing buildings and increasing funding to purchase specialty equipment for the arts curriculum.

What kind of impact could this have?

Thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation with matching funds totaling $372,500 from community partners, the transformation at Graham has already begun, and it’s revolutionized the science department.

With four new laboratories, two classrooms, an outdoor learning environment, and a laundry list of state-of-the-art equipment, STEM Coordinator Valerie Sellars says the high school is very different from the Graham where she taught Biology from 2004 to 2014.

“There was a lot of begging and borrowing from different places to get the materials and equipment to do activities. A lot of the things were done on paper — paper manipulatives, paper models, video clips — and that’s the way we taught science,” she said.

“One thing that’s been really fun is, while we’re doing labs, a lot of the students have asked, ‘Is it OK if I take out my phone and take a picture? Can I please Snapchat this experiment to my friend? I can’t believe that this did that.’ They’re really proud of and want to share their experiences in science class,” Sudzina Schut said.

Graham, like Cummings, has struggled with reputation in the past.

But with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment equal to that of the University of North Carolina, it’s hard to feel “not good enough.”

“I think that definitely helps with the morale of a school when you can give these students the top-quality education that you know they deserve,” Sudzina Schut said.

ABSS currently has 19 “theme schools,” but they’re mostly at the elementary level.

There are six Dual Language/Global Immersion schools, three STEM/STEAM schools, five Leader in Me schools, and three A+ Arts schools. There is also the Career and Technical Education Center and Ray Street Academy, the district’s alternative school.

Many of these programs were met with trepidation, but Harrison says they’ve been successful in bringing staff closer and creating a more energetic school day.

“I see a sense of community with those schools. I see a sense of energy with those schools,” Harrison said. “Those themes kind of provide something for our students and teachers to rally around, so there’s a sense of excitement. At our high schools, when we look at the Career and Technical Education Center, when we look at the pre-collegiate academy, when we look at the Fire Academy, students choose to be there, and if I’m choosing to participate in something, I’m going to be more engaged than if I’m just assigned to something.”

It isn’t just the students who are happier.

Teacher retention

During the summer of 2016, 14 teachers left ABSS to go to Orange County Schools and 16 teachers left to go to Guilford County Schools.

The fight to retain good teachers is constant, and the bond could aid that battle in more ways than one.

This is Sudzina Schut’s third year at Graham and 15th year teaching, but standing in her new laboratory everything feels brand new.

“I feel, in a good way, like a new teacher,” Sudzina Schut said. “You get energized because all of the sudden you’re like, ‘And here’s the LEGO Robotics and this is this and these are the stream tables’ and you just have, especially, I think, with so many years of experience behind me, the content is never an issue, but now it’s just like you have so much that you can do with your students and I think it’s an incredible opportunity for everyone involved.”

One reason many teachers quit is because they feel they aren’t valued and don’t have enough of an impact on their own environment.

But with specialized programs come opportunities for professional development, travel and the power to develop the program as it grows.

At North Graham Elementary, a Title I school with a history of low performance grades, the A+ Arts program has been a godsend.

During a September 2016 interview with the Times-News, Principal Nancy Cothren gushed about the impact of the new curriculum, saying there had been a decline in overall referrals to the principal’s office and a far higher rate of teacher retention than previous years.

“Teachers are more innovative. The overall feeling of the building is exciting and creative, and at the same time students are more interested, engaged in the curriculum,” Cothren said. “The team really supports the A+ program, and they love the training. It’s a very highly engaging training. They go through Music 101, Dance 101, Drama 101, so they’re up moving just like their kids.”

The year before the program was implemented, 7.5 teachers left. (That figure includes a part-time, half-position.)

The year after, only 3 teachers left.

“Those specialized programs are just something that brings a faculty together,” Harrison said. “They were part of the planning process and when you’re part of developing something, you own it and you want to stay with it.”

The longer a school retains quality teachers and administrators, the better.

Walter Williams High School moved from a C to a B performance grade from 2015-16 to 2016-17 — making it the highest graded high school in the district — and history teacher Freebird McKinney was recently named 2018 N.C. Teacher of the Year.

That on top of a burgeoning International Baccalaureate program has transformed the school, and it didn’t happen overnight.

“It takes three to four years with good leadership for a school to really get moving,” Harrison said.

But perhaps the biggest impact the bond could have is the simplest: A “yes” from voters would show the school system that the community is invested in its success.

“I think bonds are about more than bricks and mortar,” Harrison said. “I think it’s certainly about bricks and mortar in this case, but it’s [also] about a community’s investment in its children, and if we are really concerned with our future and want our kids to have every opportunity that all children deserve, we would make that investment.”

Reporter Jessica Williams can be reached at jessica.williams@thetimesnews.com or at 336-506-3046. Follow her on Twitter at @jessicawtn.

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